Week 7-Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal

Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal

Since Sept. 4, the Taiwanese authorities have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors. As of Monday, health authorities had identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice. Taiwan obviously needs a stronger food-safety policy with meaningful penalties.

Chang Guann has been buying what’s known as “gutter oil” — recycled oil from restaurant waste and animal byproducts — from an illegal factory and mixing it with lard to make its Chuan Tung cooking oil. Though the illegal factory had been in business for more than a decade, the authorities had failed to detect what it was up to. Chang Guann had also managed to delude inspectors. Recycled gutter oil can contain carcinogens. No case of illness has been reported so far. Chang Guann was fined a trifling $1.67 million for its illegal sales.

The investigation also revealed that Chang Guann had been importing lard from Hong Kong that was intended for industrial purposes but falsely listed by the Hong Kong company as fit for human consumption.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is now working to set up a system to monitor about 100 oil manufacturers and 500 importers in Taiwan, requiring them to register information about their products. Submitting fraudulent information could lead to a maximum fine of $100,000 and suspension of business for one year.

The scare follows a series of other food scandals last year; in one case, a factory owner was sentenced to 16 years in prison for adding a banned coloring agent, copper chlorophyllin, to olive oil. The Taiwanese authorities need to be doing more than reacting to food-safety problems on an ad hoc basis to ensure that what people eat is safe.

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Chang Guann Company

   WHEN-Sept. 4

   WHAT-gutter oil

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Taiwan

Keywords：

1.adulterate:攙雜，攙假

2.processor:加工者

3.taint:使感染，使腐壞

4.glutinous:黏稠的

5.byproduct副產品

6.inspector:檢查員

7.delude:欺騙

8.fraudulent:欺詐的